Biathlon: the end of winter for Vanessa Voigt
After a fantastic start to the season, with two individual podium finishes in Hochfilzen (Austria) and Le Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie), Germany’s Vanessa Voigt was stopped in mid-air by a serious respiratory infection.
After withdrawing from the Bornand mass-start, she returned to the race without success in Oberhof (Germany) and Ruhpolding (Germany). After finishing outside the top 60 in these home races, Vanessa Voigt had to write off the Antholz stage (Italy). The news came down on Tuesday morning : her winter is already over.
“Medical examinations have ruled out any serious complications. However, she still needs time to make a full recovery, said the German Ski Association in a statement. She had already had to drastically reduce the volume of her training in the spring, which, taken together, cost her a lot. Vanessa [Voigt] will therefore not be taking part in any further competitions this season. Instead, she will be concentrating fully on the start of her Olympic preparations at the beginning of May.”
She later confirmed this in a post on Instagram. “At the moment, I’m struggling to find the words and it will certainly take me some time to find them again, but the priority remains my health,” she wrote.
- With Franziska Preuss, Selina Grotian and Philipp Nawrath, and Vanessa Voigt absent: the German squad for the Worlds in Lenzerheide
- Le Grand-Bornand: Germany’s Julia Tannheimer and Vanessa Voigt, third in the pursuit, withdraw from the mass start
